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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Hot Tempers and a Summer Election

As the debate over the federal budget comes to a close
the rhetoric over Ontario’s budget is heating up. Steve Paikin of TVO did a far
better job than I could at summarizing the controversy, but I will do my best. A few weeks ago Andrea Horwath (ONDP
- Hamilton Centre), leader of the NDP, managed to extract some concessions from
Dalton McGuinty’s (OLP – Ottawa South) Liberal government’s budget. It was a tense
negotiation and the ONDP were able to extract a few concession, including a
significant new tax to offset spending cuts.

When it came time to support the bill in the Legislative
Assembly the ONDP abstained from voting, allowing for the superior numbers of
Liberals to outnumbered the Progressive Conservatives and pass the budget. This
tactic also gave the ONDP deniability to the budget, as it did not pass with
their support.

The budget then moved to the finance committee where
Ontario New Democrats made several amendments to the budget with the support of
the Progressive Conservatives. The Liberals claimed that this was a breach of
Andrea Horwath’s promise to pass the budget. On Monday Premier McGuinty
threatened to call an election if amendments were made. The Opposition called
his bluff and eliminated five sections of the budget.

That being said, it appears the budget will pass tomorrow
and Ontarians will be spared an election.
Watching this debate unfold in social media was interesting. Those allied in
common cause to fight the federal Conservative budget quickly turned on each
other and sniped at one another over this Ontario dust-up. The differences
between Liberals and New Democrats once again became quite clear, and on some
level that made me sad.

The discussion around the Ontario budget, in my opinion,
has been flawed. Criticism has been harsh against the Ontario New Democrats,
and relatively silent about the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. If
the PCs did not side with New Democrats on the amendments they would not have
passed. One might have thought this was a carefully constructed plan. Especially
given how many of the amendments went against Tory policy. From very early on
Tim Hudak (PCPO – Niagara West-Glanbrook) has refused to participate in the
process.